We Don’t Need Convenience Stores That Lack Ideas and Rely Only on Foreign Labor


 Read the original article (in Japanese):

移民と社会：「排外主義は怖い」　外国人規制強化、コンビニ大手首脳が抱く危機感 | 毎日新聞

Prologue | We Don’t Need Idea-Less Convenience Stores

“If there are no foreign workers, stores can’t operate.”
“Xenophobia is frightening.”

Seeing recent statements from the convenience store industry, I can’t help but feel embarrassed.
This is supposed to be one of Japan’s representative industries—so why all the whining?

The real issue is not “exclusion versus coexistence.”
The problem is that an industry which should sit at the cutting edge of efficiency is producing its very first answer as: “Please increase the number of workers.”

Convenience stores are an extremely design-dependent business: small sales floors, minimal staffing, high turnover.
That is precisely why they once evolved not by adding people, but by changing systems to reduce labor.

Labor shortages are not a sign of decline. They are a warning to update the design.
If the industry ignores that signal and clings to the status quo by turning to foreign labor as a shortcut, it is no longer a challenger industry.

Consumers do not want convenience stores that have abandoned ideas.

Chapter 1 | Convenience Stores Were an Industry That Built New Systems

The essence of convenience stores lies not only in what they sell, but in how operations are run.

Innovations Created by Convenience Stores

System / InitiativeWhat Was NewEfficiency Problem It Solved
24-Hour OperationBroke the conventional limits of retail business hoursSmoothed staffing and logistics, earning profits through high turnover
Minimal-Staff OperationsOverturned the assumption that large stores require many workersEliminated reliance on individual skill, standardized operations
POS (Sales Data Utilization)Moved away from intuition- and experience-based orderingSystematized demand forecasting and replenishment decisions
Dominant-Area StrategyBuilt stores as networks, not isolated pointsShortened delivery distances and optimized restocking frequency
ATM InstallationTransplanted banking services into retail spacesPartially automated and decentralized banking operations
Utility Bill & Ticket ServicesCentralized administrative and entertainment servicesReduced time costs through “one-stop” processing
Advanced Multi-Function Copy MachinesEnabled self-service printing, certificates, and proceduresReduced clerical labor by shifting tasks to customer participation

Simply put, convenience stores evolved as machines that removed human effort from retail—running many tasks with very few people.
Consumers accepted slightly higher prices compared to supermarkets precisely because of the convenience created by these ideas.

That is why today’s response—“we’re short on workers, so give us more”—looks like self-denial.

Chapter 2 | Why Did Convenience Stores Stop Thinking?

The problem is simple: they increased services without being able to reduce them.

  • Services kept expanding

  • Exceptional cases multiplied

  • Asking customers to share the burden became taboo

  • The result: operations that only work by assigning more people

Labor shortages are not the cause—they are the result.
Without redesign, adding people will never solve “not enough staff.”

This mindset leads directly to treating foreign labor as a convenient substitute.
But no industry that relied on cheap labor has sustained long-term competitiveness.

If people don’t come, the system should be rebuilt on that assumption.
That was once the core rationality of convenience stores.

Chapter 3 | Is Efficiency Cold? Customers Have Already Adapted

Critics say self-service eliminates “warmth.” That is an illusion.
If you want warmth, you pay for it—luxury inns and fine dining do exactly that.

Meal tickets, self-checkout, tablet ordering—we have already adapted.
What matters is not emotion, but consistency of design.

  • Clear rules

  • Simple flow

  • Fewer exceptions

  • Rescue when people get confused

When these exist, customers cooperate.
The problem is not that customers won’t accept efficiency—it’s that the industry asks poorly.

There must also be the courage to choose customers:
“This store requires a minimum acceptance of efficiency.”

Trying to please everyone makes everyone slightly miserable. That is today’s convenience store.

Chapter 4 | Did Unmanned Stores Fail? The Real Lesson of Amazon Go

Amazon Go reduced its number of stores compared to its peak.
But its “checkout-free technology” continues to grow through RFID licensing.

The lesson is clear:
Not full unmanned operation—but labor-light design.

  • Standard tasks go to machines

  • Humans focus on exceptions and oversight

  • Redesign systems to reduce exceptions

The technology already exists.
Labor reduction—not labor substitution—is the path forward.

Chapter 5 | Persuade the Government for Innovation

Convenience stores should not ask the government for more workers.
They should persuade the government to legalize designs that no longer require people.

Japan has done this before.

Examples of Innovations That Mobilized Government to Enable Implementation

CaseJapan-Origin Innovation OverviewDetails of Lobbying / Regulatory ChangesResults & Impact (Labor Shortage Resolution)
Prefabricated HousingIndustrialized housing through factory production and on-site assemblyFlexible application of building code certifications and establishment of performance-based approval systemsShortened construction timelines; structurally compensated for skilled labor shortages
HAL Robotic SuitWearable robotics to assist caregiving and physical laborPilot programs → safety standard development → medical device approval and insurance coverageReplaced heavy labor and alleviated caregiver shortages
FeliCaHigh-speed contactless IC technology for payments and ticket gatesStandardization and regulatory alignment for public-infrastructure deploymentNationwide reduction of staffed counters and ticket gates
iPS Regenerative MedicineMedical treatments “produced” from cellsCreation of accelerated approval frameworks and regulatory systemsIndustrialized medicine, reducing dependence on human labor
Convenience Store Self-CheckoutDigital age verification enabling self-service salesGuideline development and regulatory relaxationReduced cashier workloads and advanced labor-light store operations

What government should support is not labor procurement, but regulatory updates for social implementation.
Private firms invent; government sets the rules.
Refining this as national strategy is how Japan can compete globally again.

Chapter 6 | Labor Shortages Will Create Japan’s Next Core Industry

Japan’s early labor shortage makes it a real-world testbed for exportable systems.

The key is combination:

  • Automation

  • Robotics

  • IT

  • Human efficiency

  • Customer acceptance

Together, these form not simple labor reduction, but a labor-light social operating system.

Just as Japan exported Shinkansen operations and maintenance, it can export a society that functions with fewer people.

Chapter 7 | That Is Why Convenience Stores Must Lead

Tens of thousands of locations.
The closest infrastructure to daily life.
Fifty years of efficiency accumulation.

No better test field exists.

So the message is simple:

Do not bring people because there aren’t enough.
Create a future where people are no longer required.

  • Automate standard tasks thoroughly

  • Focus humans on exceptions

  • Redesign rules to reduce exceptions

  • Select remaining labor by conditions, not nationality

Foreign workers are not the problem.
Relying on them as cheap substitutes is.

That refusal is the pride of an efficiency-driven industry.

Epilogue | Become a Nation That Wins With Fewer People

Population decline is unavoidable.
Design is not.

If people decrease, rebuild the rules to win under that premise.
Convenience stores once did exactly that.

Now they must again replace labor shortages with systems.

Japan is not a nation that loses because it has fewer people.
It can be a nation that wins despite having fewer.

And convenience stores are now responsible for proving it first.


Read in Japanese ↓（For Japanese learners!）↓

アイデアレスのコンビニは要らない｜人手不足を“省人ビジネス”に（2023.1.23）

Read more articles (in Japanese)↓

天然鉱山型から都市鉱山型採用に切り替えて、筋肉質企業になれ（2026.1.20）



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